In customer contact systems or use centers, calls incoming to a call center are answered and handled by a plurality of agents. The system automatically distributes and connects incoming calls to whatever agents are suited to handle the calls and are free, i.e., not handling other calls at the moment. As used herein, a “call” or “contact” refers to any mode or type of contact between two entities, including without limitation voice calls, VoIP, text-chat, e-mail, instant messages, fax, electronic documents, webforms, voice messages, and video calls, to name but a few.
A system frequently becomes overloaded when no suitable agents are available to handle calls when the calls come in. The calls are placed in different queues based upon some pre-established criteria and are placed in each queue in the order of their arrival and/or priority. When a call center is overloaded, it is desirable, for purposes of customer satisfaction, to service the enqueued contacts as quickly as possible to minimize the wait time for enqueued calls waiting to be serviced. Many call centers have predetermined goals setting forth the desired maximum time in which to service a call.
To implement call center service goals, agent performance is typically monitored historically and in real time by call center administrators and supervisors. Statistic servers or stat-servers typically collect historical information regarding call center performance and goal compliance. Additionally, supervisors monitor in real-time the servicing of calls by agents. The supervisor typically is notified visually or audibly of the duration of servicing of a call by a specific agent when the duration exceeds a determined period. When the supervisor is notified, the supervisor can query the agent to determine if he or she requires help to wrap-up the call.
Because agents are commonly evaluated based, at least in part, on the average time required by the agent to service calls during a selected evaluation period, it is desirable for the agents to be made aware of this criterion before a supervisor evaluation so that the agent may address any performance deficiency and provide better service to customers.